Water Houses

Once more, I'm going to annoy you with lots of photos.   I'm like the neighbor who assaults you with pictures of the family vacation.  Much more than you'd ever want to see, but they're so wrapped up in their experiences that they don't notice the boredom in your eyes.  Ah well....get ready, cause here we go again.

For two straight week-ends I've had visitors.  The first to come was Darren Rowan, a colleague from the U.K.   He was on business in Shanghai for two weeks and came up to visit on the week-end to get away from the big city.  Then last week-end, Joe Grabczak wrapped up a week-long visit to Suzhou on business from the U.S.  Both week-ends, we did the same thing - we took the two mile walk up Shan Tang Street along the canal to Tiger Hill.  And then we took a boat ride down the canal back to our starting point.

 Shan Tang Street and the canal it parallels were built long, long ago as a route from the old city of Suzhou up to Tiger Hill.  Even 1000 years ago, Tiger Hill was an attraction for residents and tourists alike.  The street-facing sides of the houses are all pretty much the same.  They are all one-story or two-story buildings of thick, brick walls.  Most are stuccoed and whitewashed to reflect the evil summer sun.  The houses butt up end-to-end so that you can't see the canal from the street, except at the gaps every block or two.

I'm not sure how old these houses are.  They could be 50 years old or they could be 500 years old.  This doesn't look like the most prosperous area of town.  It may have been once, but it looks like it hasn''t been for a while.  I'm pretty sure most residents don't qualify as middle-class...though I'm not sure they are considered poor by China's current standards.  Every now on the street you pass an open door and get a glimpse of the inside.  Most often the view is of a dark interior cramped with old furniture and at least one small TV set.

Enough about the street-facing sides of the houses.   The thing I want to share with you is the view from the canal.  The boat ride gives the chance to see the normally hidden side of the water houses.

The brick walls of the houses normally go right up to the water's edge and use the stone walls of the canal as part of their foundations.  There seem to be two varieties of water houses;  the ones that are entirely of stone and are content to stop at the water's edge, and the others that steal a few more square feet of living space in wooden additions built out over the water and supported by wooden or stone piers.   Photos above are the wooden variety and below are those of stone.

 Most of them appear to be shot-gun houses.  One room about 12 to 15 feet deep...with a door to the street on the front and a door to the canal on the back.  Then again, maybe the canal-side is considered the front.  It seems like that is where most of the action is.  It's most definitely where all the laundry is hanging.

 All of the houses have a way to get down to the water.  Perhaps this was once to allow people to come and go by boat.  Or perhaps it was to allow them to easily use the canal as their laundry room and bath room.  There don't appear to be many boats these days.   I'm pretty confident the laundry and other uses are still common.

The photo above shows a home with steps coming from the back door down to the canal.  It's a design that is fairly typical, although this particularly homeowner did more landscaping than most.  Of course, it looks like he did the landscaping 100 years ago.  It could use a little pruning now.

The house above didn't even bother with the steps down to the canal.  Just a door, and a small porch, and one big step down to the water. 

In the photos you might get the impression that all the houses are dirty and run down.  But I've been to Venice before and also got the feeling that those houses were dirty and run down.   I think the years and the water take their toll on water houses in any location.  For the most part, these homes look pretty solid.  They could use a good cleaning and a little yard work.  But I suspect they will be housing people for a few hundred years more.